The Queen of Lunch
You can’t pick up the food section of a newspaper without reading something about the many laudable attempts, nationwide, to improve school lunches. Last week’s San Francisco Chronicle is no exception. The Chronicle has some great homemade lunches to pack for kids and adults and lunch packing secrets from the crew in hard hats.
The article that really caught my eye was by Marlena Spieler, the self-proclaimed queen of packed lunches. She has tips, recipes (like Persian herb, cucumber and goat cheese flatbreads) and seasonal suggestions to make your lunchbox more appealing.
The only problem…Spieler is not the queen of packed lunches. She can be the duchess, or the viscountess, but not the queen. The Queen of packed lunches – that’s my mom.
Although I went to a public school with a school lunch program, my mom made my lunch nearly every day. Each lunch was a complete little meal; you had your main course, usually (but not always) a sandwich; your fruit or vegetable; your other “side dish”; and your dessert. Roast beef sandwiches with horseradish mayo, tuna salad with celery and dill, chicken pitas with sprouts and cucumbers, grilled chicken salad, tortilla “roll-ups” with cream cheese, turkey and jalepenos – I actually ate that way every day for lunch.
Baloney was unheard of. The bread was lightly toasted, and with mayo and/or honey mustard. The sandwiches were seasoned with salt and fresh ground pepper, and somehow stayed crispy in my locker until noon or later. The side dishes varied from carrot sticks, apples, or a wedge of cheddar to sautéed spinach with garlic or pasta salad with feta and bell peppers. Dessert: a fun size snickers; two chocolate chip cookies; maybe a small piece of homemade carrot cake.
Evidence of her royal status - you could trade half of one of my mom’s sandwiches for a Tastykake, even the highly coveted chocolate covered, custard filled Tasty-Klair Pie, no problem. (Not that I ever did such a thing.)
I know other kids don’t have the luxury of being raised by the Queen of lunches, and many are dependent on school lunches for an affordable meal, possibly their only real meal of the day. Moms or Dads can’t all do what mine did. But schools can. Turkey with fresh lettuce, real cheese and honey mustard on whole wheat bread? That’s not too much to ask.
I did a little experiment, pricing the ingredients for eight sandwiches (that’s one large uncooked turkey breast, one loaf of bread, two heads of lettuce, a hunk of swiss cheese, and a few bucks for mayo) and came out with a price of a little over a dollar a sandwich. I did most of my theoretical shopping at freshdirect.com; the cost could likely be cut in half by schools buying in bulk.
What would the Queen say? Let them eat turkey on whole wheat!
